Whew, it's been a minute on this one! Sorry about that. I am pretty pleased with how this one turned out. Hope you enjoy - please let me know!

Sunday Morning, Breadstix

Mercedes and Sam were, predictably, greeted by a few wolf whistles and catcalls when they entered the restaurant.

"Hey, the newlyweds are actually joining us!" Tina said with a grin. "Finally managed to tear yourselves away from each other?"

Mercedes sighed. "And you wonder why I always wanted to keep us a secret from these fools," she said to Sam, who just grinned and kissed her cheek, whispering as he did so, "I mean, we were late getting here even before the parent phone calls…"

"Shut up, Sam," she replied out of the side of her mouth, her smile softening the words and he laughed before shooting a glare at Tina.

"Actually, Tina, we were on the phone with our parents," Sam explained. "Because someone put a picture on Facebook that made it very clear that we got married. But we hadn't told them yet, so…"

"Oh shit," Tina said, looking sincerely remorseful. "I'm so sorry, you guys, I didn't even think about that! Was it bad?"

"Surprisingly, no," Mercedes said. "They all kind of seemed to go with the attitude, well, you're adults, do what you want."

"Lucky," Tina grumbled. "Every time I talk to my mother, she wants to know why Artie hasn't proposed yet." She shook her head. "Anyway! Come see the surprise for you."

"Surprise?" Mercedes echoed as she followed Tina further into the restaurant, Sam trailing behind them.

"Ta da!" Rachel said as they reached where she, Kurt and Blaine were standing, stepping aside to reveal a table with a small wedding cake sitting on it and a photo collage board covered with photos of the two of them and the words "Congratulations Sam & Mercedes!" laid over the pictures.

"Oh my gosh, you guys!" Mercedes said. "What in the world – where did you get all these?"

Kurt grinned. "We plotted a little last night – we all went way back in our Facebook photos – and yours - and pulled the best ones we could find. Sent them all to Blaine, who narrowed them down and put the collage together and sent it to the one-hour photo at Walmart first thing this morning."

Sam held out his fist to bump Blaine's. "This is awesome, man."

Blaine shrugged. "I mean, since I assume I would have been best man had there been a full-on wedding extravaganza – "

"- obviously, dude," Sam cut in and Blaine grinned before continuing –

"I figure pulling this together was the least I could do. But for the record, I would have put together an awesome bachelor party."

"Well, you didn't have one either," Sam pointed out, "so I guess we're even."

Sam took a step closer to the table, leaning over to peer at the photos. They weren't kidding when they said they'd gone way back. Pictures from both of the proms they'd attended together, a shot from their first Nationals trip to New York, holding hands in the choir room, one of them sitting together on the bus to Chicago for their second Nationals, one of Mercedes sitting in the bleachers watching Sam in the pool, sharing a lounge chair at a post-graduation pool party at Santana's house, silly selfies from every time they'd dated, dressed up for the Funny Girl opening night, Sam practically passed out in Mercedes' lap on the subway home later that same night, various others in the loft and the brownstone. The thing that struck Mercedes most as she looked at them was how happy she looked – they both looked – in every photo. More than ever, it drove home for her how this marriage, sudden though it might seem, was really the best decision she'd ever made.

Sam's voice cut through her musings. "Did you take this one, B? I don't know if I've ever even seen it before."

Mercedes and Blaine both leaned in closer to look at the photo Sam was pointing to. They were fast asleep on the couch in the brownstone, arms tight around each other, Mercedes' head on Sam's shoulder, face buried in his neck.

"I don't think I ever have either," Mercedes said, looking questioningly at Blaine.

"Oh!" Blaine said. "Yeah, I came home one night and saw you guys and thought, oh, this is cute, and took the picture and then got distracted before I could send it to either of you. And by the time I remembered it, you had both left New York already but, I don't know, something told me not to delete it." He shrugged, grinning. "It's nice to finally be right about that."

Sam and Mercedes both rolled their eyes at this but didn't say anything. The friends who'd lived in New York when they were dating probably had more right than any of them to give them a hard time over this final rekindling of their relationship.

"Wait," Mercedes said, distracted by a different picture, the one from immediately after their wedding ceremony, with the judge. "How did you get this one? Our 'wedding photo?' It's only on my phone."

"Oh, that," Tina said. "Quinn had already had this idea when you were showing it to us last night. She totally texted it to herself when she took your phone."

Mercedes laughed. "Of course she did. Where is she, anyway?"

"She said she had one more thing to take care of," Kurt said. "I'm sure she'll be back soon."

"Anyway," Rachel said. "We know you don't like having a big deal made over your relationship, but you deserve at least a little bit of celebration, a reception of sorts. So – a cake, a little tribute to the history of Samcedes."

Mercedes rolled her eyes at the mashed-up name and then pointed to another picture. "What's with this one? We were nowhere near dating then – he wasn't even dating Quinn yet."

"Yeah, but come on!" Tina said, laughing. "Rocky Horror? Frank N Furter and Rocky? We had to include it!"

Sam shook his head, leaning over Mercedes' shoulder to get a closer look at the photo. "You just wanted an excuse to break out a picture of me in those damn gold shorts."

"Maaay-be," Tina said with a laugh. "Sorry, Mercedes."

Mercedes shrugged. "I mean, one of the man's biggest triumphs was being naked on the side of a New York City bus, so I guess I have to be okay with letting other people look at him, whether I like it or not."

"Strong words from the woman who was looking hot as hell in that leather getup," Sam retorted. "Really, how did it take another six months before we went on a date?"

Mercedes shook her head. "I mean, we could psychoanalyze that for hours but for now we'll just chalk it up to you being young and misguided."

"Yeah, fair enough," Sam agreed and Mercedes just smiled as he turned back to talk to Blaine again and she felt her phone buzz in her pocket, pulling it out to see a text from Quinn.

QFM: Need you out in the parking lot, please

Frowning, she looked over to tell Sam she'd be right back but found him so deep in conversation she just headed for the exit, Sugar catching up to her at the door.

"Did she text you too?" Sugar asked.

"Who, Quinn? Yeah," Mercedes said as they stepped outside. "I hope she's okay."

"I'm fine," Quinn said, hearing them from where she was standing by the passenger side of her car. "But I finally convinced someone to join us and she's kind of freaking out, so I thought maybe her Troubletones girls would be a good place to start before she gets hit with the whole group."

"Oh, Britt," Mercedes said softly as she and Sugar looked at each other and then back at the car, where they could clearly see the blonde woman steeling herself before opening the door.

"Hi, guys," she said quietly as Mercedes made a move towards her as if to hug her and then hesitated before Brittany kind of nodded and Mercedes reached out and pulled her close.

"Oh, Britt," she said again as she held her tightly, trying to somehow communicate all the love and care and concern she had for her through the hug. "I'm SO glad you're here."

Brittany ducked her head as they stepped away from each other and immediately Sugar swooped in for her own hug. "I'm so glad you're here too," Sugar said. "I've been so worried about you – we all have."

Brittany nodded. "I know – I just –" her voice trailed off and then she shook her head. "Well, anyway. I've been changing my mind all summer about whether I would come or not and then Quinn showed up at the house and basically dragged me out the door so –"

Mercedes grinned. "So we all know you don't mess with Quinn Fabray, head bitch in charge."

They all laughed at that, as Quinn said, "Damn right. We might only be an unholy duo now, but you are stuck with me forever, Britt."

Mercedes nodded. "Yeah, and you know the Troubletones are sisters for life." Sugar nodded in agreement at this before Mercedes continued, "And I'm moving back to Lima, so you are going to have to make room in your schedule for me."

"Wait, what?" Brittany said in confusion. "Why would you move back to Lima?"

Mercedes glanced at Quinn, who shook her head. "I didn't spill your news," she said as Brittany looked between the two of them.

"What news? What's going on?"

Mercedes looked down, feeling a little guilty about her happiness in the face of Brittany's loss. "So, um, there's this guy – and he's a teacher here -"

"Oh my God, you got back with Sam?" Brittany exclaimed.

"Something like that," Mercedes admitted, holding out her left hand. "I married him."

"Mercedes! That's amazing! Wait," Brittany said slowly. "You know he's my ex-husband, right? Aren't you supposed to get my blessing first as the first wife?"

The question caught Mercedes so off-guard all she could do was stare at Brittany for a moment before she finally blurted out, "Girl, that marriage was as fake as Santana's boobs so no I do not need –"

She was cut off by the gasp she heard from Sugar and that was when she realized what she'd said and her hand flew up to her mouth. "Oh my God, Britt, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said –"

As she was hastily apologizing, there was a horrifying moment where she thought Brittany was crying and then, blessedly, she realized she was actually giggling. "It's okay, it's okay," Brittany managed to say. "No, Mercedes, it's okay."

Brittany shook her head. "I think that's the first time since – then – that someone has talked about Santana like she was a real person and not someone gone too soon. Like – oh my God, Mercedes, that was a good burn. Santana would have loved it."

Quinn and Sugar, now that they had also realized that Brittany wasn't upset, both nodded in agreement.

"She would have," Quinn agreed.

"And my God," Brittany said, grinning at Mercedes. "The look on your face – "

"Yeah, your head snapped up to glare at her so fast," Sugar chimed in.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Mercedes said, feeling the heat rising in her cheeks. "I didn't even mean to, it just happened."

Brittany shrugged. "You love him. I get it."

"I do," Mercedes said quietly. "And I feel terrible about being so happy about it when you…" her voice trailed off as she looked down.

Brittany nodded. "I get that too. And yeah, it sucks. It really, really, really sucks. But – come on. After Finn, after Puck and now –" she faltered for a moment before continuing " – after Santana – if there's one thing we should all know, it's not to waste time not being with the person we love." She looked up for a moment, as if trying to gather her thoughts. "You know, we were twenty when we got married. And we got crap from people everywhere, all the time, oh, that's so young, maybe you should have waited." She shook her head. "Thank God we didn't wait. What if I hadn't had all these years with her already? I'd be even madder and sadder than I already am. So, it's okay. I'm glad you're happy, I'm glad you and Sam have finally figured things out. So, even though you obviously don't need it, you totally have my blessing as his ex-wife." She grinned and Mercedes rolled her eyes but grinned back before Brittany continued, "And I'm glad you're going to be living here, because I think I'm gonna stay here a while, and Liam definitely needs to get to hang with his Troubletones aunties."

Mercedes smiled. "I cannot wait."

"Yeah, me neither," Sugar said.

"He'll need some weekend playdates with this little guy too," Quinn chimed in, gesturing at her belly.

"You tell us when you're flying in and it's a date," Mercedes said.

"Well, actually –" Quinn said, a grin sneaking onto her face, "I was going to wait and tell the whole group – with Ty – but "

There was a collection of gasps from the other three women.

"What are you trying to say, Quinn?"

"Are you moving back too?"

"Well – not to Lima," Quinn explained. "But Ty's looking at Columbus law firms and we're thinking we'll move after the first of the year. And it has nothing to do with your move, Mercedes – we've been talking about it since the summer. With the baby coming, I want to be closer to my mom. And Columbus – or maybe a little northeast of there – will actually put us about six hours closer to Ty's family than we are in New York, so – yeah. Ohio, here we come."

"You rotten stinker," Mercedes said, hands on her hips, but laughing as she spoke. "Giving me shit about leaving New York and you're moving back here too."

Quinn was laughing too. "I know, I'm sorry. You deserved a little though, for secretly eloping."

"Eh, maybe," Mercedes grinned.

"I love you guys," Brittany said as she watched the exchange.

"And we love you!" Quinn replied as she pulled the four of them into a group hug.

Mercedes' phone buzzed again as they stepped back from the hug and she pulled it out to see a text from Sam.

SE: where did u go

She shook her head and held up her phone. "So, my husband has finally realized I'm not inside – "

"Husband," Brittany echoed with a giggle. "That sounds weird for you to say!"

"Yeah, I know," Mercedes agreed. "Anyway, he's realized I'm not there, so what do you say, Britt? You ready for a whole lotta love from a whole lotta crazy people?"